Cult of the Sun King
How did Louis XIV’S centralisation of power sow the seeds of the French Revolution?
In the early hours of 6 January 1649, the ten-year-old Louis XIV and his younger brother Philippe were woken from their sleep and hustled into a carriage that was waiting outside their apartments in the Palais Royal in Paris. Accompanied by their mother and Louis’s regent, Queen Anne, the two boys were whisked away to the safety of Louis’ birthplace, the Château de Saint-germain-enlaye, just outside Paris, only to discover that it was completely unprepared for their arrival, and in a state of disarray. The reason for the young king’s hasty flight from his capital was the Fronde uprising, a civil war that broke out in the spring of 1648 as the result of a bitter stand-off between the crown and the parliament of Paris, inflamed by Queen Anne’s chief minister Cardinal Mazarin’s efforts to raise money for the Thirty Years War, which involved raising taxes, that impinged on various fiscal privileges enjoyed by the nobility for centuries. The Italian-born Mazarin was already universally loathed throughout France by the nobility, bourgeoisie and peasantry alike, but it was this latest tussle with the parliament that proved to be the final straw, leading to violent demonstrations on the streets of Paris and simmering discontent among the aristocracy. Matters worsened when the regent, Queen Anne, who completely relied on Mazarin, doubled down and had a number of the chief leaders of Parliament, including the extremely popular Pierre Broussel, arrested, which brought the royal family into direct opposition with the rebels and made them a focus for their wrath. Broussel was released two days later, but the damage was already done, and relations between the crown and the mutinous Parisians continued to deteriorate until finally the decision was made to flee the capital.
For ten-year-old Louis, who had been King of France since the age of four, this seemingly precipitous flight from Paris was both an exciting adventure and a sobering reminder of just how fickle his people could be. He loathed being cooped up at Saint-germain, and although he was not yet able to participate in council meetings, he quickly became aware that his current plight was primarily the fault of the parliament and nobility, which led him to view them with a deep and unwavering resentment. This feeling was compounded when just a few weeks after Louis’s flight from Paris, his uncle by marriage, Charles
I of England, was executed in London after a strikingly similar disagreement between crown and parliament had spiralled out of control and ultimately ended in a devastating and bloody civil war and the loss of his throne. Meanwhile, the presence of Charles I’s impoverished widow Henrietta Maria and her youngest children, who were financially supported by Louis’ mother and living on the fringes of the French court, was further disturbing evidence of just how low royalty could fall if they failed to control their rebellious
subjects. Charles I had been an enthusiastic proponent of the doctrine known as the Divine Right of Kings, which asserted that monarchs were divinely appointed by God and therefore subject to no earthly authority, including that of their parliament. That this belief had led to Charles’ autocratically dismissive handling of his parliament and ultimate downfall and execution should have deterred other rulers from following suit, but to the spoiled and adored Louis, who had been given the middle name ‘Dieudonné’ (the ‘God given’) in reference to his seemingly miraculous birth after his parents had been married and fruitlessly attempting to produce an heir for 23 years, the theory apparently made perfect sense. This feeling that he alone was appointed to rule France would crystallise through Louis’ childhood and adolescence, boosted by the ongoing Fronde rebellion, which dragged on until 1659 and effectively fostered both his intense dislike of Paris and a serious distrust of the French nobility.
Although the royal family eventually returned to Paris after that first flight to Saint-germain, they never felt entirely safe. On one humiliating occasion that Louis would remember for the rest of his life, a mob gained entry to the royal apartments at night, and upon demanding to be allowed to see their sovereign were allowed to reverently file past the royal bed in order to see the boy king, who swallowed his fury and pretended to be asleep, for themselves. Unsurprisingly, the royal family packed up and once again fled the capital shortly afterwards. More humiliating still was the fact that so many members of the highest aristocracy, including Princes of the Blood, and even members of Louis’ own family, sided with the rebels. The Prince de Condé, a celebrated general who was beloved throughout France, initially fought on the side of the crown until he was persuaded to swap sides and lead troops against the royal forces instead, which led to Queen Anne ordering his arrest. Even worse, Louis’ own uncle Gaston, Duc d’orléans, an
“This feeling that he alone was divinely appointed to rule over France would crystallise throughout Louis’ childhood and adolescence”
inveterate troublemaker, sided with the rebellious nobles while his daughter Anne-marie-louise, Duchesse de Montpensier, who was determined to marry her cousin Louis as soon as he was old enough, ended up being exiled from court as a result of her active participation in the rebellion, which famously included ordering that the Bastille cannons be fired on royal forces – an unwise move that cost her any chance of marrying her cousin and becoming Queen. Although he was still a child, and to an extent shielded from the decision making, military manoeuvring and political ramifications of the Fronde rebellion, he understood enough to form his own opinions about who was responsible for the outrages against his royal authority and determine a plan to ensure that it would never happen again.
Although Louis officially reached his age of majority two days after his 13th birthday in September 1651, and had his coronation three years later, he was still very much under the control of his mother Queen Anne and her chief minister Cardinal Mazarin, still both as unpopular as ever, who oversaw the day-to-day governance of the realm. Energetic, bold and ambitious, Louis chafed under the restrictions that they imposed upon him, longing for a time when he alone would be master of France and could take full control. Although outwardly confident, the events of his childhood had left him feeling insecure and powerless as well as deeply wary not just of the aristocracy, but also his own extended family, who he now found himself unable to completely trust. As a handsome and charming young king presiding over a magnificent and prestigious court, Louis appeared to outsiders to be very much in control, but in reality everyone close to him knew that the real power remained with his mother and Cardinal Mazarin, who further hampered his freedom by keeping a close eye on the royal coffers. The young Louis must have wondered when this protracted adolescence would finally come to an end, until finally the hated Mazarin died in March 1661, and all of the power and, just as importantly, royal revenue, began to flow unimpeded towards him. At long last Louis was the master, and from now on he was determined not to share his power with anyone.
At the time of Mazarin’s death, Louis was 22 years old, and had been King of France for almost 18 years. He had been terrorised, patronised and sidelined – but not anymore. When asked who would replace Mazarin as chief minister,
Louis astonished everyone by announcing that there would be no replacement, and that instead he would be ruling entirely alone. “Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the government of my affairs to the late Cardinal,” he informed his council. “It is now time that I govern them myself.” From now on, although he would accept advice and direction from his ministers, every decision would ultimately be made by him, and he would personally oversee everything himself. It worked in Louis’s favour that his period of absolute personal rule followed hot on the heels of a protracted period of internal turmoil, while Mazarin had been so widely detested and his death so little regretted throughout the nation that his replacement by the charismatic and popular young king was greeted with great joy and optimism for the future. Right from the very beginning, Louis proved himself to be an effective ruler, with a particular genius for selecting the very best advisors and most efficient administrators for his council. The difficult early years of his reign may have left him extremely mistrusting of people, but they had also made him a reasonably good judge of character, who richly rewarded loyalty, but was also capable of acting with decisive ruthlessness towards those unfortunate enough to have disappointed him. Although initially Louis was preoccupied with stabilising the nation’s parlous financial situation and establishing himself as an absolute ruler, he was nonetheless keen to move forward with his long-held desire to leave the capital Paris, which he still associated with the terrifying events of the Fronde rebellion. At first the court spent a great deal of time at the sprawling Renaissance
“‘L’état, c’est moi,’ he allegedly declared, and he did not allow anyone to forget that he was in charge”
palace at Fontainebleau, but he quickly began to look around for a more suitable spot where he could make his own mark and create a splendid palace that was truly worthy of the monarch that he intended to be. His father’s old hunting lodge at Versailles, 11 miles outside the capital, seemed at first like an unlikely choice but Louis, who had first visited Versailles in 1651, would not be deterred, and from 1661, shortly after the death of Mazarin, began an intensive programme of expanding and embellishing the original building, gradually creating a splendid palace for himself.
Although Versailles was very definitely calculated to project an aura of majesty and fill visitors, especially those from other countries, with awe and envy, Louis also intended from the very first for his new palace to act as the central powerhouse; the beating heart of his absolutist regime. Once installed there and at a safe distance from Paris and the parliament, he worked hard to cement his position as absolute monarch. ‘L’état, c’est moi,’ he allegedly declared, and he did not allow anyone to forget that he was in charge. Apparently indefatigable, he worked tirelessly, overseeing every detail of his nation’s governance, from taxation to foreign policy and making it clear to his ministers that he was interested in every detail of what was going on, no matter how trivial or unimportant it might appear.
By the end of the decade, Louis was spending most of his time at Versailles, having decided that he needed to put as much distance as possible between himself and his capital, but he was not able to accomplish a permanent move to the palace until 1682. His distrust of his nobility had not abated since the dark days of the Fronde, and as he did not want to leave them behind in Paris, where they would be free to plot against him, he was forced to come up with an elegant solution to this quandary – he would bring them along with him to Versailles to keep an eye on them. To this end, he ensured not just that they would all be housed, either in the palace itself (where they would fiercely compete over draughty, uncomfortable rooms) or in the elegant town that was quickly springing up around the palace, where the wealthiest aristocratic families set about building their own mansions to remain close to the court.
Then as now, Paris was renowned throughout Europe as a glamorous and exciting creative hub, where all the latest fashions were set, the greatest minds resided and the most wonderful art created, and Louis knew that he would have to work hard to make sure that his nobles wanted to follow him to Versailles instead by making the court entertainments even more splendid than any that could be enjoyed in the capital, and ensuring that all the most fashionable goods could be just as easily procured at his palace as on the most stylish streets of Paris. There was a price for all of this splendour, though – Louis kept a close watch on everyone at court, including his own family, employing secret police and having all correspondence opened and read, with the juiciest details being relayed straight back to him – a fact that his family would on occasion use as a means to make him indirectly aware of any complaints that they might have.
He was also keen to ensure that everyone at court knew that he was the centre of their world while they were all merely satellites, orbiting around him with even the most trivial details of their own lives dictated by his daily routine, which they were all, without exception, expected to witness and participate in. The male courtiers were expected to be in constant attendance, which included participating in his morning ‘lever’ when the highest ranking aristocrats competed to hand him his clothes, accompanying him on his afternoon walk through the gardens, watching him eat his meals and then once again jostling to help when he was publicly put to bed in the evenings. By making his courtiers compete for his attention, Louis sought to remove their will to rebel and make them entirely dependent upon him, and to a large extent he succeeded.
When Louis XIV died at the age of 76 in September 1715, his five-year-old great grandson succeeded him as Louis XV. The Sun King would
have been a hard act for anyone to follow, but it was an especially huge burden for such a small child, especially one as shy as the new King was reported to be. When Louis XIV created Versailles and not only made himself the central focus of one of the most magnificent courts in history, but also placed himself at the head of the administrative structure of the entire nation, he assumed that the system would continue to revolve in exactly the same way around his successor. His son and grandson had both been painstakingly groomed from birth to take the reins after he had gone, but no one could possibly have foreseen that both men would predecease him and that he would instead be succeeded by a child not much older than he himself had been when he became King.
Sadly, unlike his great grandfather, Louis XV did not have a mother to act as regent. Instead, he was placed under the care of the Duc d’orléans, son of Louis XIV’S younger brother Philippe, who took charge of both government and court until the young King had reached the age of 13. As
Louis XIV had deeply disliked the Duc d’orléans, he attempted to curtail his power by stipulating in
his will that until his heir was able to rule alone, France should be governed by a Regency Council made up of 14 members, only for Orléans to overturn this after his death, buying the support of the Parliament of Paris by restoring the right to challenge the King’s decisions and authority that had been stripped from them by Louis XIV. This restoration of parliamentary powers would be an increasingly uncomfortable thorn in the side of the French monarchy from this point on, and would ultimately lead to the events of 1789 and deposition of Louis XVI, who was even less able to control his government than his predecessor Louis XV. While Louis XIV had used his own personal charisma and strong will to maintain control and keep his ministers in line, neither of his successors upon the throne were able to do this, hampered by both weakness of character and apathy.
Although the Duc d’orléans had wasted no time before taking the young King Louis XV back to reside in Paris, the boy disliked the capital nearly as much as his great grandfather had done, and could hardly wait to return to Versailles, which he did in June 1722. However, to the naturally shy and retiring Louis, although he was happy to be out of Paris, the rigid etiquette imposed by his great grandfather was deeply tiresome, while the monarch’s daily routine, designed to make the King appear accessible while simultaneously keeping his subjects at a distance, penned in behind barriers to watch him get dressed, pray and eat, was a torture. His own successor, his awkward, diffident grandson, Louis XVI, detested the court routine even more, and went to great lengths to hide away from the watchful eyes of his courtiers, while his wife, Marie Antoinette, would rarely be seen at Versailles, preferring instead to reside in the relative privacy of the Petit Trianon in the palace’s park. Louis XIV had used public display, etiquette and ostentatious ceremonies to emphasise his authority and reinforce his position as the centre of the court. However, to his successors, his style of kingship, which was almost akin to a cult of personality, was a terrible burden, although not one that they felt able to change, preferring instead to circumvent it rather than impose their will.
However, if the King detested the court ceremonies at Versailles, the courtiers had been indoctrinated over time to cling to them, unwilling to give up anything that gave them status, and resistant to any reforms that might reduce their rights. Over time, as the royal family made themselves less accessible by hiding away in their apartments and eschewing court events, they became the focus of ever-increasing resentment from their courtiers, who felt cheated of the close proximity to the King that was the foundation of their exalted status. Louis XIV enticed aristocrats to Versailles with the promise that they would be allowed special access to his person, but when this was gradually withdrawn, they began to feel that they had no reason to remain there, and returned to Paris, where the royal family very rarely went.
While the royal court stagnated, the capital was as exciting as ever, especially as it had become a cradle of bold and innovative Enlightenment ideas, propagated by writers like Voltaire and Montesquieu, in the mid-18th century. To the dismay of the King and his ministers, many of this new breed of philosophers were critical of both the church and the monarchy, preferring the constitutional system in Britain to the absolutist monarchy that ruled over France.
While Louis XIV would have had no qualms about crushing such sedition within his country, his successors were rather less effectual, although some of the more seditious writers, such as Voltaire, found themselves imprisoned and exiled as a result of their views, which just had the effect of making them more popular and strengthening their case that the French monarchy was the very antithesis of enlightened. Marooned in the midst of their magnificent court, which had been indoctrinated during the long reign of Louis XIV into a state of servile compliance and dependency, the Sun King’s successors had no idea just how much public opinion had turned against them and, until the very end, just how much danger they were in. Weak attempts were made to reform the system, streamline the court and improve the relationship between monarch and state, but it was too little, too late.
Louis XIV’S success as an absolute monarch had been almost entirely due to his strong and decisive personality, but in creating an expectation that the personal attributes of the monarch were crucial to the prosperity of the regime, he did his successors a huge disservice as neither of them were at all suited to the task. It was later said that while under Louis XIV nobody dared to breathe, under Louis XV they whispered, and under Louis XVI, they shouted – to ultimately devastating effect.
“Louis sought to remove their will to rebel and make them entirely dependent upon him, and to a large extent he succeeded”